T5 or HQI

Alot of lunar light is cool...but if your asleep ...one is as good as 10...they wont care
there sleeping also. ; ) except the scavengers and cleaners....but they have magic powers. LOL
LG

 

From what I've been reading...
When choosing the spectrum of your lights...

Life that lives deeper normally .. you would want bluer lights. Since that's what they get in the ocean.

Life that lives closer to the surface ... you may want a fuller spectrum.

If you're down 10-20 feet in the water, and look up you'll notice it looks blue. The other colors are filtered out and the blue spectrum makes it deeper.

 

I say get both, that's what I did. MH/T5 combo's are great, there really isn't much you wouldn't be able to keep under one.

 

You can keep anything under T5HOs or MH down to 24" deep. After that MH seems to gain in the par department but only within a certain area. Quality reflectors for both types of light have a lot to do with it as does the experience of the aquarist IMHO.

Another thing Ive learned about T5s or MH bulbs. All brands are not created equal.

 

T5HO is 32,000 lumens per watt, where as metal halide is 20,000 lumens per watt. Watt for watt, T5HO is more intense.

Actual watts means nothing whatsoever other then how much electricity it draws.

Kelvin is the color temp. !0,000K being almost white, where as 20,000K is blue. The bluer the bulb, the more colors that come out of coral, but it also washes out the colors in fish. In my T5HO fixtures I run a combination of colors, and for metal halides, I use 14,000K.

 

I grow everything form mushrooms to acros under T5HO. Same holds true for metal halides.

For my metal halides, I use the Lumen Bright reflectors made by CoralVue.

 

What geek says is so. I absolutly love Nanos. And the Solana is one of my favorites. If I were to get that tank I would grab one of these 2 fixtures.

150 watt

Current USA Outer Orbit Pendant 150W HQI 10,000K (1050) Light Fixtures

250 watt

Current USA 24 inch Outer Orbit 1x250w 10K HQI-MH w/ 4x24W T5 HO & 12 Lunar Lights, 24in > 24in

Absolutly awesome set up!

 

wo there i think you got your numbers wrong. because thats some serious lumens. if that were true we wouldd go blind from the 3 wpg we put on the tank. About MH/HPS Lighting

http://www.lrc.rpi.edu/programs/nlpip/lightingAnswers/lat5/pc1a.asp

 

I had the numbers backwards, my bad... If you look at the numbers from specialty lights, watt for watt, T5HO is better then MH as far as intensity is concerned, longer life of the bulbs and a lot less electricty consumed. The down side is you dont have as much shimmer with the T5HO.

 

I forgot to mention, metal halides are point source lights, where as t5ho intensity is the same across the full length of the bulb which is why it doesnt have as much shimmer.